


That very light

by Qelinor



Category: Tsuritama
Genre: Angst, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 08:44:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4822652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qelinor/pseuds/Qelinor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Usually the time is a destructive factor. But sometimes relativistic effects can make an unexpected present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That very light

**Author's Note:**

> Just some logical (and lyrical, I hope) conclusions to literal interpretation of Haru's "Here we meet after hundred years!" when he first saw Urara's triangle and subsequent guesses about lifespans of the aliens.

“Haru-niichan, are you ill or something? Are you actually staying in the observatory voluntarily and still have such a satisfied look? I bet the ocean will freeze tomorrow.”

The ocean shows no signs of freezing. It’s warm, it’s infinite, it shines with all color ranges under the pink-to-blue gradient of the sky. If seen from above, the surface is speckled with iridescent spots of various forms.

But the two fishes are at the other side of water surface and see a different picture. Red and gold fish stares through a system of films and bubbles at a black round of space spotted with stars. A pink and turquoise fish spins around. It bursts with curiosity. The red one reacts to his sister’s jabs as usually, that is, he does not react at all. Instead, he tumbles over his head, rushes along the lower film circle, his fin almost touching it. The starry image zooms in slowly, the speckles look more like fuzzy rounds than pinpricks.

“See, Coco. Yuki called that yellow star the Sun.”

Everyone knows that fish don’t speak. But they think very loud. Their thoughts spread in water faster than sound.

“Oh, I get it now. So you still remember them. But why today?”

The betta gets closer, but her brother drives her away and turns with its belly up. His contours fuse like stars in the bubble telescope. In a second, a human in a space suit floats under the lens. His age is undecipherable under the glimpses of stars gliding over his face and pale hair.

“Why today?” Without opening his mouth, Haru turns to his sister and smiles. Creases in the corners of his eyes and mouth deepen. “I’ve checked with a lot of reference books – yes, I’m capable of such a feat! – and you know, the light we see now in the lens was emitted by the Sun precisely on the day when I stood on the bridge to Enoshima, and a car with a red-haired boy inside drove by. Just a tiny part of the total sunlight fell on us on that day. The other rays were irradiated into the space and today they have just reached our world. So I want to feel _that_ sun once again.”

Haru watches the yellow star so intensely as if he tries to absorb it all. The pink and turquoise fish flashes down on the man’s chest and coils up there.

“Niichan, have you accounted for galaxy arm movement?”

“I did, don’t you worry.”

“And for effects of Universe expansion acceleration?”

”Yes I did!” Haru shouts aloud and pouts. Coco stops bothering him.

“Okay,” she soothes him “I agree, it’s really fascinating. It means, you can return here over a couple of terrestrial weeks and catch the sun under which Yuki caught his first sea bass and you reconciled with him. Over three months, you’ll catch the tail of the first work day at the Captain’s yacht. Then you’ll see the sunlight that you missed hidden behind typhoon clouds. And in a year, siblings of the rays falling onto you and Yuki and Urara standing at Enoshima pier will reach us. Over six terrestrial years, we will perceive photons from the radiation warming the four of you during large graduation travel. In three more years’ time, there will be anniversary of Yuki’s wedding, then the birth of his fry… It seems rather irrational to hatch one baby at a time. Then, lots of other meetings at the shores, then, over sixty more years –”

“Coco, stop it!” the human-shaped alien covers his sister on his chest by his hand, right over the heart. “Please don’t hurry. I know, humans… I will not come here over one week – because I will not leave this place. I’ll stay here. This time I will not miss a single ray. There will be no clouds or planet rotation to screen that sun from me.”

“Silly brother,” pink and turquoise betta darts from under the human hand, dives down like a shooting star. “I will get you some meals, then.”

Shiny pink and turquoise spot vanishes in the ink-dark depth. Deeper, farther, so that even an echo of her thoughts does not reach her brother.

Silly brother. How many rings have grown on your scales, and you still don’t want to realize… It was not the sun that warmed you back then. _That_ true light will never reach us, but I’d better not tell you. Please stay happy as long as you can.

 

***

”I know, Coco, I know.” The aged man in a spacesuit whispers. Glimpse of a distant star shines still over the transparent helmet shield. Under the shield, a moist spark rolls down his cheek. “I know.”


End file.
